


Sister secret

by Broba



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Age Difference, Dom/sub Undertones, F/M, Romance, Underage Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-19
Updated: 2012-10-14
Packaged: 2017-11-14 15:09:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/516677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broba/pseuds/Broba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kinkmeme prompt. John is forced to come home from college and look after his kid sister for a while, which is a pain in the ass, but at least he has his buddy Dave coming over to keep him company. Jade has her own ideas about what's going to go down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

John pulled up to the old Egbert place in his rusted Packard and got out. He heaved a satchel of books onto his shoulder with a grunt and headed up to the door. His keys were in the pocket of his pants on the same side as the satchel, and as he was holding it on his shoulder with that hand it was an awkward job to free them. He finally struggled them out of his pocket and opened the door with a loud bang that was accidental. He shrugged his books onto the floor by the hatstand in time to see his kid sister appear at the top of the stairs. She glowered at him over narrow folded arms.

“Well,” she said, “you're back then.”  
“Yeah. Welcome home, huh?”

She rolled her eyes and made a 'whatever' gesture, turning round to go to her room. John cursed under his breath and closed the door. He didn't particularly want to be there any more then she wanted him to show up.

John made himself at home, which felt like an oddly strained process seeing as how this had been his home for so much of his life. A couple of years away at college and now he was feeling like a stranger pawing through someone else's stuff. He cooked a simple bolognese with pasta and crushed basil, then he yelled up at his sister to get her ass down to the kitchen for food. By the time she deigned to appear, sulkily, he was already half way through his plate.

“Hey,” he said.  
“Hey.”  
“Gonna sit?”  
She just rolled her eyes and flounced to a chair. She was wearing a black tee shirt with a gauzy sort of  thing over it that showed off her arms in grey, with ubiquitous armbands all over her wrists. John thought she was trying a little too hard with the whole goth phase.  
“What's this?”  
“Pasta. Eat it.”  
“I'm a vegetarian now John, I can't eat this.”  
“Since when?”  
“Urgh. Jesus, I dunno, since all this year?”  
“Well. I had a long drive, I'm tired, please- just eat it.”  
“Jesus!”  
“Just pick out the pasta if you like.”  
“That's not the point!”

Jade was really starting to get on his nerves and he wanted to tell her so, but given the circumstances that had brought him back here he thought better of it and assumed it was down to the stress.

“I'm sorry, okay? I didn't know you were vegetarian now. Dad didn't mention it.”  
She muttered something under her breath but he let it slide.  
“I'm going to call the hospital after dinner, they might let me talk to him. So, do you want to like, hang around and talk to him?” He smiled thinly.  
“Oh, what, you're giving me permission to talk to him now?”  
“No I didn't mean it like that!”  
She slapped her hands down on the table with a violent crack, “I'm going to my room. He's not my real dad anyway so, yeah. Just do what you want.”

John watched her leave and bit his tongue. He wanted more then anything to whip some sense into her but it would do no good. From what he had gathered from his dad in their shared phone calls over the summer Jade was going through something of a rebellious period. Naturally, his dad had taken it all in his stride and told John it was nothing to worry about, it would pass, but now John was starting to wonder if this kind of stress hadn't contributed to what had happened.

Later, John reclined on the couch and called up Saint Joseph's where his dad was currently admitted. He chatted away to the ward nurse who gave him a brief overview of the situation. The heart attack was not thought to be serious, as heart attacks go, but they were keeping him in for an angiogram when he was a little more rested and would probably stent him, whatever that meant. John caught sight of Jade peeking around the door into the living room and beckoned to her. She reluctantly entered and flounced over to an armchair. She glared at him while he went over a few details with the nurse and put down the phone.

“Okay,” said John, “he's basically all right, but they're keeping him in for observation and stuff. He's going to be in hospital at least a week.”  
“Did you talk to him?”  
“No, he's sleeping. They did say that getting him to hospital in time saved his life, so you did good.”  
“Yeah.”  
“No I mean it, I bet it wasn't easy getting him to sit still and wait for an ambulance.”  
“Tell me about it, he just kept going on about how it was just a bit of a twinge and he was going to walk it off.”  
“Heh, sounds about right.”

She smiled shyly, and for a moment it was how it had once been. When they were young, when John was the grumpy teen and Jade was the wide eyed kid following him everywhere and giving him a dreamy smile whenever he looked at her. The age difference had always put a solid barrier between them but at times they had shared something like a rapport.

“So what are you going to do?” She asked.  
“What do you mean? I got to stay here for a while. It's okay, I cleared it with my tutors and I can keep up with my study.”  
“I don't need a babysitter John.”  
“You're not even fifteen yet, don't give me that.”  
“Dad wouldn't want you slacking on your studies.”  
“I told you, I cleared it, it's fine. They understand when your dad has a heart attack, I mean come on!”  
She folded her arms grumpily.  
“Don't start acting like you get to be dad now,” she snapped.  
“I promise. I mean I'll try to be cool, okay?”  
“Oh great, that'll work.”  
“You know what I mean. And dad will be out of hospital soon, things will go back to normal.”  
She sighed, “whatev-er-r.””

He rolled his eyes and dialled the phone again.  
“Who are you calling now?” She asked.  
“Just a friend. Oh! Hey, man. Hi. Yeah I'm there.”  
He waved her away, and she stuck her tongue out at him. She swivelled on the chair so that her gangling legs flopped over one arm and got out her Nintendo. John stuck a finger in the ear not attending the phone to drown out the strained bleeps of dying pikachus.  
“Yeah,” he continued, “he's going to be okay, they're just keeping him in. Yeah. That's what they said. How did you know- oh, okay, I guess it must be pretty standard then.”

John listened intently for a while and Jade glanced over. He was smiling goofily.  
“Thanks for saying, man. It means a lot, really.”  
Jade was watching him openly now, and he flicked a hand at her fitfully.  
“Thanks. Oh no, you don't have to do that! N- hey listen! It's no big deal I can handle it myself.”  
Jade smirked and pumped her fist in front of her mouth, miming fellatio. John gave her a shocked expression and silently mouthed 'fuck off!' at her.  
“Yeah just me and my kid sister. You know her right? Did I ever tell you? Anyway, sure, that would be great!”

John put down the phone and groaned.  
“What the hell was all that?”  
“Oh sorry, was I interrupting a special moment with your boyfriend?”  
“Yeah, ha ha, funny. Dave is a buddy of mine from college, and he's going to be swinging by his brother's place for the holidays- since his brother lives all the way down in Texas he's going to stop by here on the way and chill for a few days.”  
“He's in your class?”  
“No, he's at Virginia doing some post-doctoral stuff but we hang out and stuff. To be honest it'd be good to have him around, he's going to be a specialist doctor and he'll be able to translate what's really going on with dad.”  
“Oh yeah? Is he hot?”  
“Jade!”  
“What? Texas boy, he'll need to snuggle up warm when the weather comes in!”  
“Pff, he's, like twice your age, he was already finished his degree when I met him.”  
“Mature huh? Sounds good.”  
“Yeah right. Down girl!”  
“Worried I'll steal your douchey boyfriend?”  
“Sure, it's the first thing that came to mind. Look just behave yourself when he gets here, okay? He's a good friend and I don't want to have to make excuses for my dorky kid sister.”  
She stuck her tongue out at him and got back to her game.  
“Well he sounds like a douche anyway. I hate smart-ass guys.”  
“Sure you do Jade,” John smiled, “and when you're ready for a boy friend I know you'll pick a dumb one.”  
Jade rolled her eyes and concentrated on her game. Her brother was such a dork she could barely imagine how boring his friends must be.

Dave turned up at half past eleven at night, roaring up the drive in a big red Chevy muscle car that made the windows shake. Jade was supposed to be in bed, which naturally meant that she was texting her best friend boredly in between painting her nails a sick shade of green. She went to the window at the sound of the car crunching up to the door and stared dispassionately downward. She saw a man get out and slam the door shut carelessly, before running a hand through a bedraggled mop of ash-blond hair. Even from a distance she could see he was wearing one of those cheesy pairs of yellow night driving glasses and she groaned inwardly. She tapped out a quick message on her phone, advising her friend that her brother's dorky friend had shown up and would probably be completely insufferable.

John met Dave at the door with a wide grin and a whoop of surprise, wrapping the taller, rangy man in a bear hug.  
“You said you'd be coming down in the morning! What are you even doing here?”  
“Felt like a drive.”  
“That's it? You just felt like it?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Well come in, you crazy bastard! I think dad left some beers in the cooler, you want one?”  
“Sounds good, man.”  
“C'mon in, I'll show you round.”

Dave stepped over the threshold and looked around a little awkwardly. He had been curious as to what kind of a home situation would produce John Egbert and, he had to admit, it was exactly as he had expected. The décor alone would give enough material to make his ironic tumblr spin.

As the two men made their way to the kitchen Jade crept down the stairs, listening to their inane chatter with a derisive grin on her face.

“So, you find the place okay?”  
“Yeah,” Dave stretched with a click and muttered a word of thanks as John passed him a cold longneck.

Jade stretched her head and shoulders through the banister posts on the stair and spied on them around the door-jamb of the kitchen. She had always loved the staircase, it was the centre of the house and her preferred spying territory. From various points up and down its' length she could get a decent look at most of the house.

“How was the trip?”  
“Tiring.” Dave hooked edge of the bottle-cap on the side of the kitchen counter and struck it sharply, popping the bottle open expertly. John used a bottle opener on the second try and Jade stifled a chuckle.  
“You okay, man?”  
“Sure, sure. I just got done on the first, like, fifty pages of my thesis and my mind is going. To be honest, if I hadn't come over here when I did I think I'd have just blown my fuckin' brains out.”  
“Sounds like a shitty deal, are you going to make it okay?”  
“Yeah, you know it. Just going to cost me my sanity is all.”  
“Fuck yeah,”

Jade turned down the corners of her mouth and nodded. Her brother barely ever swore, and certainly never in this house while his dad was around.

John continued, “so they said my dad was going to have an angiogram? And a stent?”  
“Yeah, relax. It's like a chest x-ray, and the stent is to open up a coronary artery if they find it's not letting enough blood through. No big deal.”  
“That's good to hear. I nearly fucking died when I hear about it. I mean, you never expect your dad to wind up in hospital, it knocked me on my ass.”

Jade saw Dave shift position slightly. She could only see their feet, but Dave was close and facing John. She saw that Dave wore boots, not shoes, and they were black leather. Her brother always wore a filthy set of sneakers.

“John. Man. Listen, I know it sounds bad, but seriously it could have been a whole lot worse. All this is, is a wake-up call to your old man to start takin' things a bit easy, from the sound of it. He can go on medications to help keep his heart in shape and it doesn't have to mean a change in lifestyle.”  
“Shit man, you sound so much like a doctor some times.”  
“Well yeah, I am one you know.”  
“You know what I mean. It's just weird hearing it coming from a friend. Thanks for coming though, seriously it means a lot to me.”  
“Hey like I said, I needed a break real bad and it's not like I was going to let you stay up here all alone.”  
“Pff, I wish I was alone. My kid sister is driving my balls.”  
“I never knew you had a sister.”  
“Adopted. But, y'know, she's my proper sister?”  
“How long has she...?”  
“Before mom passed. I guess they were trying for another kid but it wasn't happening, so they wound up adopting. I was, uh, like ten? We pretty much grew up together.”  
“She been giving you shit?”  
“Yeah. She wouldn't ever admit it but this thing with dad has to have got her rattled. And I know it's tough for girls growing up and shit, but Jesus she's a pain right up my ass. She was the one who figured out something was wrong with dad, he was having some pain in his chest and she called an ambulance even though he wanted to shrug it off.”  
“Smart kid. You got to take chest pain seriously, even if it turns out to be nothing.”  
“Yeah but I wish I'd been there, you know? I mean she's only fourteen and she had to see dad get carted off in an ambulance.”  
“She'll be okay, she's got her big brother here now. Got to have a big bro, makes all the difference.”

Jade made a big show of stomping down the stairs to let them know she was there and barged into the kitchen, pushing past the men to get to the sink and fill a glass. All the talk about her like she was a child had pissed her off and she didn't mind showing it.  
“Well look who it is!” John said, “feel like a midnight snack? This is my friend, Dave.”  
Jade glared at him over the rim of the glass with a withering expression. John raised his eyebrows and turned away, shooting Dave a 'see-what-I-mean?' look.

Dave set down his beer with a firm knock on the counter and turned to Jade, staring down at her openly. Jade met his gaze defiantly, holding his eyes with hers. He was a good head taller then her and the glasses made his eyes yellow and cold. His glare was remarkably piercing and she fought down and instinctive need to look away.  
“Hey. Kid.” His voice was blunt, with a noticeably southern twang.  
“What.” She retorted.  
“Don't give John any fuckin' trouble, y'hear me?”  
“You can't talk to-”  
“I asked if you fuckin' picked up what I'm puttin' down here. You get me?”  
She wilted, he was commanding in a way she hadn't expected. She just grunted “fine, whatever” and stalked off back upstairs.

John turned to Dave with a look of unalloyed glee on his face.  
“That- was awesome! She never pays any attention to what I say!”  
“No problem.”  
“How do you even do that? Shit it was so stone-cold cool. Are you pickin' up what I'm puttin' down, shit!”  
“Egbert, don't... don't try to do the voice. It's a doctor thing, we can all do it. When you learn how to tell a screaming panicking mom to get the fuck out of your face and do your job, you can handle anything.”  
“You have to show me how to do that some time.”  
“John. In the years I've known you, it has become painfully clear to me that you are beyond my teaching. You're like some kind of a savant.”  
“Thanks!”

Jade stomped up to her room and flopped onto the bed, burying her face into her pillow. No one had ever talked to her the way John's stupid friend had. It was humiliating the way he had just taken control so effortlessly and she couldn't get her mind off it. The other thing she couldn't stop thinking about was his eyes. She rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. He had such piercing eyes!

Jade found her hands wandering over her midriff and settling on her stomach, stroking gently. Dave, she thought. Doctor Dave, apparently. She was starting to gain an appreciation for her dorky brother's taste in friends. Maybe, she thought with a sly grin, it wouldn't be so bad having him around for a little while.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning Jade came down stairs as usual and passed through the lounge on the way to her breakfast. She slept in a pair of boyshorts over which she wore a long white shirt that served as a night-dress. It had a large cartoon chicken on the front and it reached to her thighs, it had served her well for years but she was starting to outgrow it. She wandered through the lounge with a loud yawn, scratching at the sleep in her eyes. Suddenly she was interrupted by a sound as the television clicked on. She stopped startled and turned to see Dave sat on the couch, holding out the remote. He wasn't looking in her direction, but surely he had done it to discreetly remind her that she was not alone. Jade was suddenly intimately aware of her shabby clothing and felt a wave of embarrassment again. Dave was already dressed in a button down shirt and slacks even though the day had barely dawned yet. Jade muttered something sharply under her breath and scurried away to the kitchen. She turned over a pan and stared at her reflection and, sure enough, her face was already glowing with one of her tremendous blushes.  
  
Jade groaned inwardly and poured herself a bowl of cereal. In order to prove to herself that she was not the awkward little girl she felt herself to be on this particular morning she also heated up a pot of coffee and determined that she would drink it black. On most mornings she felt that she was able to sashay her way downstairs with a certain decorum and, dare she say it, appeal. Some time ago she had set up two full length mirrors in her room and spent ages walking up and down in between them, carefully studying her own rear and cultivating what she believed to be a little wiggle in her walk. On this morning, of course, all of that went out of the window and she had managed to slob her way awkwardly across the lounge in front of the immaculate Dave. She groaned and ran a hand through her hair to try and set it into some kind of an order. Perhaps the tousled, just out of bed look could work for her, she thought. This being the case, Dave found her sitting silently at the table when he entered an appropriate amount of time later. He seemed to have psychically picked up on her awkwardness and given her a minute or two to compose herself before moving, an explanation she was perfectly prepared to go with at this point.  
  
Dave held up a hand and she nodded brusquely. She let him see her eat a spoonful of her cereal and, to try and reclaim some kind of advantage perhaps, she delicately lapped a spot of milk from the spoon with the tip of her tongue. In her head she was certain this was a devastatingly sexual detail. For his part, Dave busied himself preparing a simple breakfast with what he found in the fridge. Dave favoured a hot bagel smeared with butter and a little jelly, which made sense to her as he must surely have been feeling the cold keenly.  
  
Dave sat down opposite her and began to eat. He was dainty about it, he actually managed to eat a bagel daintily. Jade was curious but tried not to watch him openly. In the daytime he was wearing brown tinted glasses, almost dark enough to be shades. The dark shadow crossed over his eyes made them seem paler to her, she liked it. He could pull off a look like that without even trying.  
“So, uh,” she muttered, “what kind of a doctor are you?”  
“I started off in internal medicine, and I'm currently working on my post-doc in diagnostic nephralogy.”  
That meant nothing to her. Jade found it redundant to say 'internal medicine,' surely all medicine was internal? Or was she being dumb? He had said one sentence to her today and she was already feeling out of her depth.  
“So you're a proper doctor, right?”  
“Yes, I am.”  
“How do you know John?”  
“We go to the same college. We actually met in the cafeteria though, and just sort of started to get along, I guess.”  
  
That sounded about right. John had an appalling habit of sidling up to people and just acting as though they were already firm friends, and what truly sickened Jade was how it always seemed to work.  
“So if you're already a doctor why are you still in college?”  
“Well, it's complicated, when you go through medical school you pretty much have to either go straight into medicine or start specialising in a more specific area.”  
“What's your area?”  
“Nephralogy,”  
“Mm-m-m-m?”  
“Kidneys,”  
“Great, great.” She sucked on her lip and stared down into her cereal. The cartoon shapes floating around in the milk mocked her. She refused to feel this way in her own house, and especially over a boy. No, a man. Dave was definitely a full, proper actual man.  
“So, Dave,” she got a small thrill out of calling him by his first name, like equals, “are you married?”  
“Mm? No.”  
“Girlfriend?”  
He chuckled, “not right now.”  
“Boyfriend?”  
Dave nearly chocked on a bagel crumb and gave her a wry look. She giggled, “what? It's an honest question.”  
“No, no boyfriend.”  
“You don't talk much, do you?”  
“I guess. I spent the last year being yelled at by one of my tutors so I'm used to sitting still and listening I guessed.”  
“Oh yeah? Been getting your balls broken, Dave?”  
“Watch your tongue. And yes I have. Doctor Vantas is a genius but he doesn't have any kind of an indoor voice and everything in the world makes him angry.”  
“Urrgh. I know the feeling. All my teachers hate me.”  
“I'm sure they don't.”  
“No it's true! It's like, they all want to just kick me out as soon as they can.”  
Dave made a face, “they're just doing their job,”  
“Oh yeah? Is that what you say about Doctor Vantas?”  
“Okay. Deal. We both have asshole teachers.”  
  
There was a thump from upstairs and Jade rolled her eyes. Her brother was up and about, it seemed. She decided to walk away while she had a chance to do so with some dignity. Excusing herself she put her plate in the sink and made her way to the kitchen door. As she turned away from him to leave she yawned, stretching one arm high over her head and bringing the other up to hold her elbow. She had practised this too, and she knew that when she stretched just right her shirt hiked itself up a little at the back and showed off a little of her rear in the boyshorts. She decided to give Dave that because he treated her seriously. Jade didn't bother looking back, she knew Dave must have seen. As she passed her brother stamping down the stairs in his sleeping clothes he ruffled her hair and grinned at her.  
  
“Heya Jade! Morning!”  
“Urgh! I am so sick of boys!”  
John laughed, “well get used to it, you got two around here now.”  
Jade didn't answer but made her way up the stairs. It was perfectly clear to her that she was playing host to only one boy, and one man. She heard John call out to Dave, who responded in kind. Around John, it seemed that Dave let down the icy cool screen he surrounded himself with habitually. Jade seethed inwardly.  
  
Jade went to school that day, but all she could think about was the man waiting for her back home. She had come to the firm conviction that she was falling for him, or perhaps that she already had. She couldn't concentrate on her work and she got yelled at more then once for it, but she didn't care. She imagined Dave getting similar treatment in college and just laughed to herself. Dave looked like he could handle just about anything but he had his problems just like her. It was something they shared in common, in fact, and Jade resolve to build on such commonalities. At lunch she sat with the membership of the unofficial goth group referred to as the coven by the other students, that group consisting entirely of herself and Rose Lalonde, her best friend. Jade was not sure that she could maintain the suitably aloof and bitter demeanour that the group demanded, but she would try her best for Rose, who she idolised. Rose had perfect hair in a neat bob that never seemed to fall out of place in the slightest. Rose really made the black outfits work with splashes of neon colour, while Jade always felt that she looked like she was wrapped in black tarpaulin. Where Jade was clumsy and fundamentally optimistic, Rose was caustic and held out the worst possibility in every situation.  
  
They compared meals and offered swaps. One thing that Jade always won out on was the quality of her food. She never had less then a fully packed lunch back, usually containing some kind of pastry, whereas Rose tended to turn up to school with whatever she could grab out of the cupboard. Jade had been to Rose's house once and was pretty sure she had smelled alcohol in the air.  
“Hey Rose?”  
“What,” they were both staring into the distance out of the window. When Rose stared it looked as though she were peering into a distant world, not fixating on some piece of grit that had fallen onto her glasses as Jade often appeared.  
“What kind of guys are you into?”  
Rose glanced at her, “the kind who get me.”  
“I- yeah I mean, of course, but what kind really? Like, tall, short, what?”  
“I don't know. Not too tall I suppose. I don't like looking up at people.”  
“Mmm.” Jade especially liked the way she had to lift her chin to look up at Dave. If she stood right in front of him and spoke to him directly, she imagined that he would have little choice but to look down her shirt. He was only human.  
“Jade. Are you waiting for me to ask you in return what kind of boys you like?”  
“Well, for me I'm sick of boys, they are ridiculous.”  
“Very much so.”  
  
Jade glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye and stroked her throat, swallowing hard as she felt her voice want to curl up and die all of a sudden.  
“Actually, I have been thinking. If I was ging to go out with someone I think they'd have to be, uh, a bit older.”  
“Oh yeah? Like, how old?”  
“I dunno,” in fact she didn't know- Dave had to be coming up to thirty? John said he was about twice her age, which would make that right. Still young though, for a man.  
Rose seemed to ponder this, “how's your dad?”  
“Oh, they reckon he's going to be fine. Why did you suddenly ask that?”  
“Well, it makes sense really- with him in the hospital, maybe you're looking for an older figure to take his place.”  
“Rose! Gross!”  
“Hey, I'm just saying...” Rose was already laughing, she was teasing but it had stung a little.  
“Well don't! Ew!”  
Rose grinned and wrapped an arm round Jade's shoulder, squeezing her, “don't worry about it. For what it's worth, I think I've sworn off boys too.”  
”Really?”  
“Oh yes, really.”  
“Good. We're agreed then.”  
“Mhmm, I suppose so.”  
They left it at that. Jade had a strange feeling that Rose had come close to seeing straight through her and Jade just wasn't ready to go into what she really wanted to say.  
  
Jade practically ran up the drive to her house and as soon as she got in realised that she needn't have bothered. John was playing one of his dumb video games with Dave and they were obviously settled in for the long haul. They were laughing together, and Jade wanted to groan. It was obvious that her private time with Dave this morning would not be happening again while John was about.  
  
Jade had to be cunning about it, and over the course of the evening her mind reeled as she tried to think of ways to separate John from his friend. She eventually hit on the perfect scheme when she suggested a steak dinner, knowing that John would definitely want to go out and grab all of the fixings and ingredients fresh. Dave offered to drive him but John wouldn't hear of it, the preparation of dinner was his territory entirely. Jade's heart was pounding as she grunted in acknowledgement when John told her he would be back in about an hour, and as she closed the door behind him her palms were sweating and her hands shaking a little. It was insane that she could feel this way about someone she had just met but Jade firmly believed that sometimes people were just perfect for each other and they knew it straight away. She wondered what Dave thought of her in return, she was certain he had to feel something too. He was of course far too cool to actually say anything about it, which made her want him even more. She would have stripped off her clothing and leapt straight into his arms if she had the courage or thought that he would let her. Dave would never want something like that though, she felt. He was stern and controlled, he had to have everything just-so. His clothing was always perfect- the immaculate Dave, as she had started thinking of him, and she had to be perfect too if she wanted to get his attention.  
  
Jade scurried upstairs quickly and pulled off the shift dress she had worn all day, rummaging through her clothes and tossing rejected items to the floor. She chose a sports bra which gave her slender assets a firmness if not a lift, and over that a loose necked dress shirt. She matched it with a pair of crisp white panties and decided on a simple short skirt. She looked at herself in the mirror and couldn't decide if the overall look was daring or ridiculous. She smoothed down the shirt and nodded to her reflection. It was simple, but mature. Perfection.  
  
When she went downstairs again Dave was nowhere to be found. The game had been paused, and after a quick search she found him on the back porch leaning over on the post-rail. She saw his head duck down to the level of his shoulders, which made his shoulder blades strain powerfully against his shirt. She wanted him to take her in his arms and just rip the stupid shirt off her and tear the stupid sports bra away. She didn't care what he did as long as it was him doing it. She saw a puff of smoke float up into the air and his head came up again. Of course, he was having a smoke. Her dad had his pipe, but he disliked the smell of cigarettes and so the house rule was that cigarette smokers had to either switch to a proper, dignified pipe or take it outside. Somehow, it suited Dave. Jade could imagine him sharing a smoke with his fellow doctors after some kind of complex surgery or whatever. Celebrate saving a life by sacrificing a little of their own. That was so much like him that it almost hurt.  
  
Jade joined him at the rail and stared out over the neat garden stretching away to the far hedge. The winter sun was setting already, and the ground had the icy sparkle that suggested it would take a dusting of snow and hold onto it should one fall. Dave glanced over at her and nodded. Jade turned around and laid her elbows back on the rail, pushing her chest out a little. She looked up at him, and mentally invited him to take a look at what was presented to him willingly.  
  
“Hi Jade,” he said, “I was just having a smoke.”  
“I figured,” she said, raising an eyebrow, “it's fine.”  
“So how was your day,” he drawled, “teachers still getting on you?”  
“Yeah, as usual. It's no big deal though I can handle it.”  
“Glad to hear it.”  
“I hope John hasn't been boring you,”  
“Nah. I really needed this, you know? Chance to get my head straight, and figure out what I want.”  
“What do you mean? What you want?” She barely dared to hope, her trembling finger found its way across her stomach.  
“I'm not sure about my current path. I pretty much just drifted into it, and I dunno if I'm really passionate about nephralogy.”  
Jade deflated. Kidneys, again. “What does your tutor think?”  
“He thinks I have my head so permanently wedged up my ass that I can see infinity. I'm not making that up, it's an exact quote.”  
“I see. So you have doubts? What else would you do?”  
Dave sighed, “I dunno, really.”  
“Well, I'm glad you could talk to me about it.”  
Dave just grinned and stuck his cigarette between his lips. When he glanced at her, Jade felt certain that his eyes flickered downward, once, to take in her body.  
“Sure Jade, it's no problem I don't mind talking. I know I come across as quiet sometimes,”  
“Well, listen.” She took a chance and reached out, touching his arm, “just remember it's not just John here, okay? If you feel like...” she trailed off. She felt like an idiot and he was already giving her a polite smile.  
“Okay, Jade.”  
  
Jade coughed and pushed away from the rail, storming off into the house. She had been so foolish. Of course he would talk if he wanted, he barely knew her though and she was acting like he could come to her with anything. Which he could, of course, but it still came off sounding like she was a deluded child. Why would he go to her when his best friend was right there? It was stupid, and as she played the conversation back in her head it certainly sounded stupid. She stopped dead when he called to her from the doorway, and turned.  
“Hey Jade?”  
“Yes?”  
“Thanks, y'know?”  
Jade beamed and nodded, turning slowly and walking off. This time she made sure that he saw the wiggle she had been practising.  
  
John came back all too soon and they went about the evening together, Jade contented herself to hanging around the other two while they relaxed and enjoyed their gaming. She went to bed before they did, but stayed awake in her darkened room, listening. They might have had nothing to wake up for in the morning but they were still on college-time and kept a reasonably sensible schedule. Dave went upstairs around midnight, and John followed soon after. Jade sat up silently. Her heart was in her throat and pounding painfully, she could barely swallow. Dave was in the guest bedroom a short way down the hall, and if she knew her brother he had pretty much dissolved into sleep as soon as he was horizontal. Jade pulled off her shirt and sat, topless, in the dim blue light of the stars and moon in her room. She looked down at her bare midriff and casually cupped her breasts in her hands, such as they were, staring down at herself. She felt as though the intensity of what she had been feeling had finally broken something inside her, or burned out something in her brain.  
  
Standing up, she padded over to the door and opened it, carefully looking outside. Perhaps ten feet away she saw Dave's room and under the door a light shone feebly. He must still have been up, perhaps reading in bed. Perhaps, and she grinned, getting ready for bed. Undressing. Jade took a deep breath and stepped out into the corridor. She had completely failed to make any kind of impression she was certain, but she had to do something even if Dave never knew about it. She slipped down her panties and tossed them back into her room, and stood in the corridor completely nude. She stepped lightly across to his room and stood opposite the door. If he were to wrench it open in that moment, he would see her there vulnerable and helpless. He would have no choice then. She entertained herself with lurid visions, even as she chastised herself for thinking such things about the immaculate Dave, even as she mentally begged him to punish her for being so rude and forward. She pressed herself back against the wall and stared at the door which was all that separated her in her growing awareness of what lust is and Dave. She flagrantly spread her legs and ran an inviting hand though the little patch of coarse black thatch between them. She tickled herself and almost cried out, she begged for the strength to call to him but she knew she was too frightened. She turned and bent over, balancing by placing her palms outstretched on the wall. Her rear was almost touching the doorknob, she felt a brush of cold brass against her skin and rose up in goosebumps. She wanted him to see, she wanted him to feel her, a female- she was still not ready to say a woman- ready for him to possess and have and hold.  
  
Jade flexed her back and parted her ankles, trying out a little motion with her hips. Perhaps, one day, he would see her for what she was. Then her mind was simultaneously frozen and shattered as she heard a noise. Was it a cough? Or a creak as of a floorboard? She panicked, she didn't know what it was or where it came from. Dave might have moved in bed and made a spring complain, maybe he had cleared his throat softly, but the spell was broken and she darted back to her room. Her bare body flashed in the moonlight and she paused only to snatch up her knickers and pull them up snugly before bouncing into bed and wrapping the blanket securely around herself. Her body was burning, she was blushing all over. She reached down and felt something new, as well. A wetness between her legs that was totally different in character to what she felt when she had occasionally explored down there in the past. She touched her fingertips to her lip and tasted herself, a little sharp and almost metallic. Dave might be hers or not, one day, but she knew deep in her loins that she was unutterably his.


	3. Chapter 3

Each day that passed only made things worse. Jade found that her feelings had not abated in the least as time went on, in fact the harder it was to spend any time alone around Dave the more she felt a desperate need for him that was starting to gnaw at her gut with a physical pain. John had started fussing over her, annoyingly enough. She was pale and drawn and couldn't finish a full meal. Of course they were both worried about their dad, and John just put it down to the stress. For his part Dave was impeccably polite and a perfect gentleman at all times, worse luck. She was sure he had to have noticed something. It would be simply inhuman for him not to pick up on the signals she was sending him.  
  
Jade's nocturnal excursions were becoming ever more elaborate and risky. She would creep up to his door, press her palms against the wooden surface. She would even tap them ever so gently, hoping against hope that he would hear and come to the door, hoping that he would not hear and she  would not be discovered kneeling at his door in the nude. Taking risks that she knew were not really risky was not enough to satisfy her any more, however. She needed more from him or else she felt certain she would just waste away and die. Better to die then suffer endlessly, she reasoned.  
  
Of course, Rose knew something was up. Rose could pick up on the slightest vibration of emotional discontent and she took Jade to the side at lunch and flatly demanded to know what was wrong with her. Jade hated that incisive stare of hers, but she was pinned down like a captive butterfly and there was no escape.  
“Come on, spill it!”  
“It's nothing! I promise!”  
“Don't lie to me!” Rose commanded imperiously.  
“It's nothing,”  
“So there is something then!”  
Jade squeezed her eyes closed and heaved out a sigh, “there's this guy.”  
“I knew it!”  
“You did?”  
“Well, I knew you had to be mooning over someone. Oh Jade, you really are so obvious!”  
“Am I?”  
Rose smiled enigmatically, “to me, you are.”  
“It makes no difference. He doesn't even know I'm alive.”  
“That's what's got you all worked up and pale as a ghost? Some boy isn't noticing you?”  
“Ro-o-o-ose,” she whined, “don't say it like that. It's serious! And,” she looked down shyly, “he's not. A boy, I mean.”  
Rose raised a very quizzical and very expressive eyebrow and Jade blushed.  
“And that's not a round about way of saying it's actually a girl!” Jade retorted, Rose looked faintly disappointed if anything, “it's just, he's a little... older.”  
“Older? Like, a senior?”  
Jade shook her head.  
“You mean, out of high-school? Jade? College?”  
She nodded slowly and bit her lip, “older.”  
“Oh my God! How old is he?”  
  
Jade told her. Rose blanched and actually took a step back. She had passed the point of no return now- she had actually expressed aloud to another human being what she was feeling and to Jade that crystallised the situation in her mind. It was no longer a fantasy flitting around her head like a lost moth in a dark room, it was out in the world and a living thing aside from herself. Jade felt sick, suddenly she bent double and it was all she could to do prevent herself retching. Rose crouched next to her and held her. Jade could feel Rose's fingertips patting numbly across her back, neither of them knew quite what to say.  
  
“Jade,”  
“Rose- don't. I know what you're going to say and I don't care! I feel things- I've never felt like this before! I know it's real, Rose, and I'm going to die!”  
“You're being melodramatic.”  
  
That was true, of course, but it changed nothing. The two girls just sat and stared for a time.  
“Jade.”  
“Mm?”  
“Is he at least pretty sexy?”  
“Oh my God you can't even imagine! He's just so- oh my God I can't even start, he's just so,” Jade grinned dreamily and waggled her eyebrows at Rose, who tittered behind her hand and playfully punched her on the shoulder.  
“Jade! I do believe you are a horn dog!”  
“Yeah maybe. I just wish he was! He won't even look at me.”  
“Well, I guess that's not such a bad thing. I mean he's not meant to, exactly, is he? It's illegal!”  
“I don't care about all that.”  
“Maybe he does?”  
“Yes, that would be just like him.” Jade pouted sullenly, “girls mature faster then boys though, everyone knows that.”  
“I don't think the police would see it that way.”  
Jade suddenly sat up, startled, “Rose! You won't tell!”  
“I- well I don't know! It's not the sort of thing you can just overlook!”  
“Please!”  
  
Rose thought hard on it. This situation was entirely outside of her experience but every fibre of her being told her that it could only end badly.  
  
“I'm not promising anything right now Jade. If someone hurt you, I'd go crazy! I'd... set them on fire or something.”  
“I'm serious!”  
“So am I!”  
“You have to be on my side here! I'm asking you to be understanding, as my best friend!”  
“Urgh. You had to pull that one on me. All right look, tell me about him. Start at the beginning and don't leave anything out. If I think he's a creeper I'm so telling on you! Okay?”  
“Fine. 'Cause he's not a creeper, he's a total gentleman.”  
“We'll see.”  
  
It was the beginning of a truce between the girls. Jade began telling her everything about Dave, and as she did she started to realised new ways in which she wanted him that she hadn't even realised before. There was just so much to him, so many details that she fell in love with all over again when she had to think about and explain them to someone else. For her part, Rose was supportive if suspicious. She promised to say nothing yet, but reserved the right to do so if something crazy happened. She was acting like a mother hen, but Jade was secretly a little thankful for that.  
  
When she got home, John was his usual insufferable self. He fussed about her like the entirely worst kind of mother hen and insisted Jade sit down and have a cup of tea while he made her some soup. She sat sullenly, staring at the wall. When Dave came in she did her best to look interestingly pale and alluringly unwell. He actually took her pulse- using his fingers on her wrist, like on television- and Jade felt her heart speed up immediately.  
“John thinks you're coming down with something,” he announced laconically.  
“What do you think?”  
“I'm a doctor. It's my job to assume everyone is a bit sick in some way.”  
Jade smiled, “don't you ever get sick of sick people?”  
“Yeah totally. If you're really ill I'm going to be bummed out.”  
“I'll do my best to piss you off. I'm going to be the worst patient and get boogers everywhere when I sneeze.”  
“Sounds about right, you pain in the ass.” He was grinning as he said it, and Jade felt everything inside of her skin flutter at once.  
  
John came in bearing a plate heaped high with thickly cut toast oozing with butter, and a bowl of steaming soup that was populated with bubbles of oil and floating islands of chicken. The smell alone was nourishing and Jade couldn't resist taking a little, though she refused to look happy about it. John grinned, happy to be doing something proactive, and clapped Dave on the shoulder.  
“Well doctor? What's the diagnosis.”  
Dave smiled wanly, “she'll be just fine,”  
“Hell I could have told you that, what am I paying you for?”  
Dave laughed softly, and Jade bit down savagely on some toast. She wanted to be the one to earn a laugh like that, he stupid brother had done nothing for it except tell cheesy jokes and make some soup.  
“Seriously though,” Dave continued, “it's pretty much just stress. Bed rest, and maybe a day or two off school. I'm not just saying that either- that really is my opinion as a doctor.”  
John nodded gravely, “I guess you're right. Okay, I'll call the school, there should be someone still there.” He smiled at Jade, “looks like we're stuck here kiddo! Oh! I'll tell the hospital I won't be coming over to see dad tomorrow, I don't want him worrying too.”  
“Hell no, bro. You go on, I'll stick round here and look after Jade. Your dad needs you too.”  
“What, for real? I don't mind, I can rearrange it,”  
Dave shook his head, “no, you have to go. Your dad will get better fasted if you go see him and keep him a bit of company, and Jade will get better faster if he does, so it's a win-win.”  
John grinned and nodded, turning away to go to the ancient Bakelite phone in the hall.  
  
Jade had been listening attentively to ever word even though she had kept her head down over her soup. It was almost too perfect- John would be gone most of the day between the journey to the hospital, the journey back again and visiting hours which he would no doubt use to the full visiting their dad. That meant she would be alone- with him. For once there would be no interruptions, he would have no excuse to leave, she would have him all to herself. She had to attend to the soup most studiously to hide the blush, and the flutter on her breath.  
  
That night Jade found she couldn't sleep at all. Nor could she keep her hands off her body. She lay naked under the sheets in bed and pictured how Dave would touch her, and her fingertips roamed where she imagined that his would want to. She wondered if he would be demanding or respectful- she didn't care so long as he got what he wanted. So long as what he wanted was her. She casually coiled a finger through the resistant hair of her pubic mound and reflected as she gazed up at the ceiling. Blue lines of moonlight stretched across the plasterwork, stirred lazily by the gauzy curtains. She was reminded of the night before Christmas, growing up. It had been like this, knowing that the day to come would hold toys and games and endless goodness. That same anticipatory warmth, but the morning would instead being only Dave. She knew she was second-guessing herself though. Dave still hadn't responded to her and she prepared herself for the possibility that he would not still. She wanted to protect herself against disappointment in case he rejected her and yet she knew that he would not; not when he knew just what she felt about him. Not when he knew he could simply call her name and she would fall at his feet obediently.  
  
When the morning finally arrived Jade looked as exhausted as she felt, and John had no hesitation in demanding that she remain in bed. John had to leave early as the trip to the hospital was only an hour and a half given decent enough traffic, but he wanted to get into town and had time to organise a gift first. That meant Jade was given even more time with Dave, it was like all the good fortune she had been praying for wrapped up into one day all at the same time. As soon as she heard the door slam shut she was up and out of bed. Her hair was appalling and her skin was a disaster area so she raced into a shower and made sure she was looking more presentable. The tricky part was to seem a little weak and helpless, she reasoned, while still making it clear that she had something going on. She pulled on a pair of pastel green panties that she liked, picking a pair that she had owed for some time. They were old, but had the advantage of being a little too small for her and  they were snug in all the right places. She followed it with a tee-shirt and socks, it was long enough to be presentable and not show off too much- but only just. She very studiously avoided a bra today. If things went as she hoped, she wouldn't need one.  
  
Jade stood in front of her mirror towelling off her hair and taming it into shape. She paused and clapped her hands to her chest, lifting and squeezing her breasts. She stared into her own eyes, and promised herself that she would not chicken out when she had been given such a perfect opportunity. She grinned cheekily and turned to the side, arching her back and sticking out her little backside.  
“Go ahead Dave,” she murmured, “get a good feel-” she slapped her rump with a smirk.  
  
Suddenly she heard steps on the staircase and a voice calling her name. It was Dave- she wasn't sure if he'd heard anything. She nearly squeaked, and raced for her bed. She sat herself demurely on the edge of the bed and placed her hands neatly in her lap.  
“Dave? Is that you?”  
“Yeah Jade, can I come in?”  
“Of course, go ahead,” yes, she wanted to say, come right in here and take what's yours.  
“Thanks,”  
Dave stepped into the room and paused, looking at her sat there on the bed. She knew that her bare legs were showing, she pressed her thighs together slightly. She smiled over at him and he crossed the room, he had a thermometer.  
“Going to give me a medical?”  
“I just want to be sure you're not running a temperature, you were a little warm yesterday. How do you feel?”  
“Oh, much better really. Johnny is just being fussy.”  
“Mm, I'll be the judge of that. Open.” He held out the thermometer and she parted her lips obediently for him to place it under her tongue.  
  
While they waited thirty seconds for the thermometer, Jade just stared at him. She was increasingly aware that she was being weird but she couldn't help herself, she couldn't bring herself to tear her eyes away from his face.  
  
“Jade?” Dave looked back at her, she couldn't see where exactly he was looking through those ubiquitous shades but she could hope, “is something the matter?”  
She took the thermometer out and handed it to him, “what's the verdict?”  
He glanced at it and nodded, “you're fine.”  
Jade bit down on her lip hard, she needed the shock and the pain to break her paralysis. She reached over and placed a hand on top of his suddenly.  
“No, I'm not!”  
  
Out in the hallway, there was an old fashioned clock on the wall that had a soft tick, soft enough that it was barely noticeable. In Jade's room they could both hear it clearly clicking the time away between them as they sat in frozen silence. Jade saw that Dave's lower lip was quivering slightly, she felt little hairs raise on the back of his hand as she gently pulled it closer to her leg.  
  
Suddenly Dave shot up as if he had been electrocuted, he actually staggered back. It was sudden and violent and for a moment Jade thought that she had actually hurt him. He composed himself however, smoothing his shirt down self-consciously.  
“Jade...”  
“No! Don't talk! Dave, listen, I have- I feel these-”  
“Jade! You can't do this! We can't! You're just a child!”  
“Until when? Some magic box gets ticked? Until I go over a magic date? I know what I'm feeling!”  
“Stop. Don't say any more-”  
“I love you!”  
“Jade!”  
“What's wrong with having feelings? Why should I just pretend I don't love you?”  
“Oh God, this can't happen,”  
“Yes! It can! I've figured it all out, and if we're careful we can make it happen!”  
“I can't believe I'm hearing this,”  
“Listen, I'll be out of high school in a couple of years, and then we don't have to pretend any more. And until then,” she flashed him a smile that was truly wicked, “we can just have a little secret?”  
“You realise that John is going to kill me. He's actually going to kill me and they won't ever find a body.”  
“I know how it sounds, but just think about it- he loves you, who would be better to be with his sister? He'll come around, when we tell him eventually.”  
“You have it all worked out, huh?”  
“I'm not a kid any more Dave, leave my dumbass brother to me.”  
“I could get thrown in jail for even talking to you like this.”  
“Dave,” she purred, “it's o-kay! I'm not going to tell, you're not going to tell, we're going to be fine.”  
He half-turned to regard her, he still looked shocked, “you're acting like I've said I want this,”  
“You haven't said you don't,”  
“We can't do this,”  
“That's not the same thing. Tell me what you... want.”  
Dave licked his dry lips and sat down on the other end of the bed. He looked as though he was trying very hard to put the right words in order.  
“If you want me to admit you're, uh, attractive- then fine. You are. I admit to that, I'm not going to pretend you're not,” he said haltingly, “but that doesn't change that this is all different kinds of so very wrong.”  
“Doesn't that make it a little bit more exciting?” She leaned over slightly, he leaned slightly away, “you can do what you want, you know. I won't tell, I won't stop you. Anything you want, just tell me what to do. I promise, I'll do anything you want me to.”  
“Would you never mention this ever again if I told you not to?”  
“I don't think you're going to tell me that,”  
“What makes you so sure?”  
“You would have, by now.”  
  
Jade stood up, and took a cautious step toward him. It was like approaching a frightened bird, she didn't want him to take flight.  
“I'll make it easy Dave,” she whispered, “you don't even have to say anything, okay? It's not you doing this, it's me. All you have to do is keep quiet.”  
  
She was very close now, she could smell his cologne. He always wore cologne, every day. She adored that about him.  
  
“Doctor Dave,” she whispered, “if you want me to take off my shirt, just sit there and don't say anything, okay? I'm going to, I want this,”  
He was silent. He looked rigidly straight ahead of him. He was a gentleman, of course. She knew she had to show him that she truly wanted this, he would never take advantage of her. She loved that about him too.  
  
She stood up and faced him. His eyes were black and impassive, invisible behind the shades. She bent over slightly and lifted the hem of the tee shirt. It was just enough that the rounded tip of her panties showed between her thighs. She turned around slowly, and continued to lift the shirt. The thin cotton rose up her back, revealing the tiny, tight muscles bunched around her spine. Dave saw twin dimples at the base of her back, he saw the indents and curves of a body not yet fully formed, a woman waiting to come into being. The shirt was still lifting. Jade had to pull her hands up over her head and tug it up the last of the way. It was adorable, and she moved with a childish gracelessness, but it was also overtly sexual. Dave felt his traitorous body responding as to a woman, as to sex, as to lust, no matter what his more civilised inclinations might want him to feel.  
  
Jade tossed the shirt away and stood there with her back to him. Her arms were crossed over her chest, she just stood there.  
“You're just a child,” Dave said, his voice was a hoarse whisper.  
“I need you,” she replied.  
“This is wrong,”  
“Tell me to go then. Punish me.”  
“I don't want to.”  
“Do you want me to pull down my panties?”  
“Oh, God!”  
“It's okay Dave, it's all fine. Just watch.”  
  
She hooked her thumbs under the waistband of the panties, and wiggled her hips a little- it was unnecessary for her to do so, it was obviously just a thing she had seen people do. She bent over without hesitation and plucked them down. They clung to her, unwilling to be parted from her, they pulled free from the cleft of her buttocks with a barely audible hiss of cotton. She had a tiny, well defined backside. Dave saw two more dimples, set into the side of each hip, where as she filled in womanly curves would swell her. She daintily stepped out of the panties and threw them away- she wanted no more to do with them.  
  
“I'm going to turn around,”  
“Please,”  
“Unless you tell me not to,”  
“Please! Jade!”  
  
Jade took a deep breath, he chest felt like it was expanding endlessly, she could barely breathe. Her heart was pounding with a force that rattled painfully on her ribs, she was shivering all over. Her skin was speckled with goosebumps over every inch, while at the same time she was burning with heat. She very deliberately lowered her hands to her sides, making them into fists. She took a step and turned around, facing him. She was nude, utterly vulnerable, she presented to him a girl that was his for the taking.  
  
“I'm yours, Dave.”  
“Jade,”


	4. Chapter 4

Dave rolled over onto his back. The heat was stifling all of a sudden, and he tugged the thick Northern blanket from his chest. The sun was hitting noon time and the windows were solid blocks of gold set in the wall. His arm was aching and numb, he pulled it away from under Jade's head gently and laid it across his bare chest. She was awake, and when he turned his head toward her, she was staring right at him. The hours had passed in a blur; he had been drawn to his bedroom and they had lain together. Just being under a blanket with this naked child made blood rush to his head, and he felt like he could black out at any moment.  
  
She was just laying there next to him. He had stripped down to his boxers, which was about as far as he felt capable of, and they had stayed there like that next to each other. There had been a little talk between them, he had touched her skin with his fingertips and stroked the curve of her side with his palm, and in turn she had nestled against his chest in a pillow of black hair that scattered over him ticklishly. She had taken note of his erection and examined it academically, even touching him a little. She listened to his heart beat as her nails scored lightly over the tip and when his body jerked slightly her own heart flew about inside her.  
  
She hadn't expressed any desire to do more then that and he hadn't asked her to do anything. She was in a sort of fugue state, examining him and delighting in the reaction his body gave to her presence. He was a new and unexplored territory to her, and she was thorough is naïve in discovering him. He watched her touched and examine every inch of him. In utter silence she laid a line of kisses down his thigh, and she ran her lips over his skin, stroking the rousing hairs on his skin with interest. She wanted to taste him, to smell him, to see him, she wanted to know all of him, and he did not object. For all of that, neither did he urge her. He was paralysed with indecision, he knew he was not permitted to want this, it was absolutely and utterly wrong. He told himself that over and over, he reminded himself that he was committing the cardinal sin. Not by his own hand, but by allowing an innocent young child to sin and doing nothing to stop her. As a man and as a doctor he knew that he was through inaction allowing someone in his care to seek what they should not, and yet he did nothing. Perhaps it was her constant smile, he shy glances up at him, her need to know that he was happy for her to continue. Perhaps it was the way that she didn't demand of him, she desired him but wanted nothing from him that he wouldn't give freely.  
  
Jade reacted when he moved, she rolled over and on top of him to mount his middle. She was utterly bare and he looked up at her beaming face like a man staring into the sun through tree leaves. She stroked a fingertip over his eyebrow.  
“It's funny seeing you without shades on all the time.”  
“I have sensitive eyes, it's why I need them.”  
“Can you see me okay now?”  
“Sure, you look great,” he smiled, “like this, you look like you have a halo.”  
She leaned back. She was kneeling over his crotch, her legs were spread over his middle, and when she flexed her body he could feel the thatch of her little wedge of pubic hair brush against the underside of his erection through the cotton of his boxers. It was so slight, yet he felt he could sense every individual jet-black hair play over him one at a time.  
“I love you,” she said flatly.  
“Mm,”  
“Are you going to say it back?”  
Dave felt an icy fist grip around his heart.  
“Jade,”  
“Well?”  
“I- just met you, like, a few days ago! Until this morning I never even thought-”  
She laughed softly and curled her body down over him, stroking her cheek insistently against his chest.  
“It's all right I was only playing. I'm not stupid, I know it takes time. Just tell me there's a chance? In time, you might feel it like I do?”  
Dave swallowed heavily, “yes, there is.”  
Jade chuckled, “how much of a chance?”  
“Quite a big chance,” said Dave, and he was surprised in himself to find that he meant it.  
  
No, it was more then surprise. He was shocked that he could feel emotions swelling up inside him that he recognised as infatuation. She could offer no more then a fantasy to him, she was a ridiculous pastiche of a romance he told himself, but still- but still...  
  
He placed his hands on her hips- his fingertips could nearly meet around her narrow waist- and she giggled happily. She actually ground her hips inexpertly against him a little and he laughed.  
“Oh Jade, Jade.”  
“Yes Dave?” She loved calling him that, she wanted to call him David and be the only one who did.  
“What are we even thinking here? This is crazy.”  
“You're the sensible one,”  
“You make me a lot less sensible.”  
“Yes? Tell me.”  
“Tell you what?”  
She leaned over him on all fours and flexed her back like a cat. Her budding breasts pointed against him and scored trails of erotic desire across his skin where they touched him.  
“Tell me how I make you crazy.”  
“It hurts.”  
“It hurts?”  
“I mean, it literally hurts, right here,” he stroked a hand across his stomach, “you don't just give me butterflies, you make me feel like I'm going to turn inside-out. It hurts just looking at you.”  
“Is it a good pain?”  
“A good pain?”  
“Like, sexy pain.”  
“Oh you know all about that, I suppose.”  
“Of course,” she reared up on her knees again and pouted at him, “sexy pain.”  
“Sexy pain.”  
“Sure. Do you want to...?”  
“What?”  
She grinned like a young devil freshly hatched, “do you want to slap me a bit?”  
“Jade!”  
“Put me over your lap? Spank me?”  
“Christ!”  
She giggled again, but she also put her hands on him and caressed his penis, which had firmed up noticeably with every word.  
“I mean it. You really can do whatever you want, I don't mind.”  
“What if I want to be the good guy and not mess about with kids?”  
“Too late for that. But we can be bad together.”  
“I don't know if that makes me feel better,” he groaned softly.  
  
She kissed his nipple and bit it inexpertly, the effect was more painful then sensual but he gritted his teeth and endured it, stroking a hand through her hair.  
“What are we even doing here?” He asked.  
“I dunno,” she shrugged, even that was cute, “getting to know each other? I want to be with you Dave. I mean really, be with you- forever. Whatever it takes, okay? Anything. We'll figure everything out.”  
“You're going to be the death of me.”  
“Am I?”  
“Yeah.”  
“What are you gonna do about it?”  
Dave suddenly seized her, gripping her shoulders in his hands and throwing her down on the bed beside him easily. He rolled over on top of her and pressed kissed over her giggling face, he licked and kissed his way over her lips, her chin, her throat, her breasts, she nearly screamed in adoration.  
“Gonna make sure I get to live a little first,” he answered.  
  
Jade pushed her head back into the mound of pillows and made a sound like crying as Dave's weight imposed on her and Dave's skin pressed against hers and Dave's cock was between her legs and touching her.  
  
They didn't go further. They touched against each other, they enjoyed each other's skins, but they did not go further then that, not yet. It was enough for them that in one moment at least they had both admitted openly to the other that there was a wanting and a needing between them. They didn't need to physically consummate the desire they felt for one another so long as they were sure of it in themselves. If it made no sense to Dave, he didn't care as long as things could continue to feel so good. If it was enough for jade then she knew no better, and found something more in Dave then she'd ever felt before.  
  
She laid across him lengthwise, her body spread across his like a narrow ribbon covering his midriff, her face nuzzled into her crossed arms.  
“Dave. Do you want fuck me?”  
“Fuck you...”  
“Right now.”  
“Do you want me to?”  
“I asked first, what do you want?”  
“Do I want to fuck you?”  
“Yeah. C'mon, what do you think?”  
“I dunno. It's a big step, isn't it?”  
“I want to.”  
“You don't know. You're only a wicked terrible little girl.”  
  
She laughed at that and slapped his leg. He tilted his head up and grinned own his body at her. She crawled over and snuggled against his chest.  
“Have you had lots of girlfriends?”  
“A few.”  
“How old were you, the first time you did it?”  
“Older then you.”  
“Yeah but how old?”  
“Not too much older, but older.”  
Her hand tickled down his body, she was already getting better at that, “what's it like, when you do a girl?”  
“You really want to know?”  
“Of course.”  
Dave thought about this for a moment, “well. They're all different.”  
“Go on.”  
“Yeah, yeah, give me a chance. Okay, the first time is pretty hard,” she sniggered and he tapped her on the back with an admonishing grin, “a little difficult,” he corrected, “you have to, like, learn the way all over again with each girl.”  
“Mm, that makes sense. How do you think I'll be?”  
Dave made a non-committal grunt, but she wasn't letting him get away that easily and needled him with a grin.  
“Come on. How do you think I'll be?”  
“That's kind of a weird question.”  
“I never get to ask this sort of stuff though!”  
“Mm-m-m, I wonder if there's a reason for that.”  
She smirked and slapped his thigh again, “I'm not a kid. But since you know it all, I might as well take advantage.”  
“You're takin' advantage all right.”  
“Come on. What do you think. What kind of a fuck will I be?”  
“Ah, shit, that's not the kind of question I want to think about.”  
She nodded and casually drew circles on his skin with her fingers, “It's so weird hearing you cursing.”  
“Sorry.”  
“No, I like it. You should say what you like around me.”  
  
  
Dave tilted his head down to look at her, she was no more then a black blob in his vision nestled on his chest.  
“I do feel comfortable around you.”  
“Mmmm,”  
“I don't know where this thing is going to go, though.”  
He felt her shrug.  
“I don't know if we'll ever have more then this day,” he said softly.  
“Why?”  
“I'll be heading on soon, remember.”  
“Mm.”  
“I mean it. I'll be hittin' the road. What then?”  
“We'll figure it out.”  
He cupped her chin and tilted her face up to him. “Will we really?”  
“If we want.”  
“What if we don't?”  
“Then, enjoy me while you've got me?”  
  
He stared down at her for a moment that seemed to drag on. Every time they came up to this moment they had pulled back like a tide receding from the shore, and yet they were here again inexorably at the familiar point of penetration.  
“Roll over,” he said.  
“Like this?”  
She squirmed around and laid upright on top of him. Her pointed little chin dug into his chest a little, right at the base of the xiphoid process below the sternum, he noted professionally. He stared down into her eyes. She was forbidden, and rightfully so, but she was also right there, her warm body pressed against his.  
“Spread your legs,”  
“Yes, Dave.”  
Her legs parted lithely, they were slender and pliable. He stroked his hand down her back and over her rump which curved and bunched with musculature where her legs strained open. She stared at him unwaveringly, and sucked her lower lip into her mouth. He found the gently dipping cleft of her bottom and stroked a fingertip downward, guided to her crotch, and stopped when he felt warmth, and wet.  
“Go on,” she said.  
“I want to,”  
“I want you too, go on.”  
He closed his eyes, his jaw tensed tightly, and he touched his fingertip to her opening which parted freely and allowed him entrance. He slipped his finger back and forth in the little entrance and within seconds she was panting softly. When he opened his eyes she was still staring directly at him. Her clitoris was tiny, barely there at all but still he found it. Her eyes went wide and she made a soft throaty growl. He felt her legs vibrate and shiver against him as he touched it, and he realised he was the first to make her feel like this. His fingers were slicked and wet, and hot, and she was shivering wildly against him. When he gave her the orgasm she hadn't realised was coming it hit her like a bullet to the head and she screamed.  
  
Dave laid back in bed and stared at the ceiling. Jade was laying next to him, and he could hear her breath. The sun was making its' way into the late afternoon and the windows were blocks of glowing burnished bronze. He casually touched her back and she blinked awake slowly.  
“Jade.”  
“Mm?”  
“I think this day might be all we get.”  
She sighed softly and pressed her body against his, touching and licking and kissing him hungrily, but she knew better then to argue the point. They lay together a little longer, and when Dave rolled himself upright and sought out his shirt she followed suit.  
  
When they heard the sound of John's car pulling in they were both dressed and sat downstairs. She was staring at the television vaguely and he was reading a book. He would come in and they would say hello, and help with dinner. Talk would roll along as it was meant to, and at the right time, Jade would go up to bed. Later on, Dave would go up to his own room. Whatever the future was to hold, they had that day.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .....and the thought running through my mind is, if I leave it there then it's an ambiguous ending perhaps but also a happy one.


End file.
